


FILE: 1997 Cubed

by Xrross



Series: The Wishful Files [1]
Category: Id:Invaded (Anime)
Genre: "Crossover", (mostly), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Crossover based off of the "Cube" film, Implied/Referenced Suicide, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:08:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24170323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xrross/pseuds/Xrross
Summary: If you woke up with no memory, trapped inside a giant, endless maze of cubes, filled to the brim with deadly traps, what would you do? Lay down and cry? Give up and accept your fight? If you're inclined to do any of these things, then you clearly aren't a brilliant detective.
Series: The Wishful Files [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1878448
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	FILE: 1997 Cubed

**Author's Note:**

> Based off this piece of fanart. Show them some love.
> 
> https://twitter.com/gaiaku_aoz/status/1251757831654567936

"Hey, brother! Mind if I ask a few questions?"

With a jolt, the man opened his eyes. For a moment, the colours and lines blurred together into a single image, but a few confused blinks soon forced everything back into its proper place. Once it was all settled, he found himself staring at a wall - no, a ceiling, since he seemed to be lying down - covered in alien markings reminiscent of circuitry, the soft white glow pulsating behind them only reinforcing the otherworldly feel. With a slight groan, the man sat up, eager to be off the chilly metal floor, which, at a cursory glance, looked identical to the ceiling.

"Hey, you all in there? I've got a job to do."

"Hmng?!" The man looked to his right and finally noticed the other man crouched next to him. His first instinct was to roll over and leap to his feet, but something about the man made him pause. He was tall, that could be easily gleaned even with his present position, and wore an... "interesting" outfit consisting of a blue trench coat (matching his wild, spiked hair), red boots, a pair of tight black trousers, and a few silver ear piercings and rings. But it was his grin that caught his attention most of all; it was juvenile, almost bordering on a full-on smirk, yet there was an odd sense of age to it, a weariness reflected in his chartreuse eyes.

"And who might you be?" He finally asked. The blue man's grin grew even wider, and he rose to his full height, his towering figure even more apparent. 

"Well isn't that funny, cause I was about to ask you the same thing!" He said, garnishing his words with repetitive hand motions and pointing, his eccentric demeanour clashing with his dry, soft-spoken voice. The man frowned as he stood up, already growing exasperated.

"Well? Are you gonna answer me or..." he began, before trailing off, furrowing his brow as if he had just noticed something peculiar. Then, his face twisted in surprise, his eyes wide with a sudden realisation. "I... I don't know who I am. I know nothing." The blue man raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing? No name, age, birthday? How you got here?"

"No... absolutely nothing."

The blue man let out a dry, slightly sardonic chuckle, as if he had been expecting that. "Well, isn't that useful. Although, I can't really act all smug; I don't remember much myself."

The man narrowed his eyes. "So you do remember something?" he asked. The blue man suddenly burst out laughing, slapping his head thrice in rapid succession, the other stepping away, slightly taken aback by the display.

"Yeah, you could say that," the blue man said, his teeth bared in a broad, almost unsettling smile. "I don't know my age, my birthday, or even how I got here? But I do know WHY I'm here. I'm Anaido, the brilliant detective who's here to solve the mystery of Kaeru's death."

"..... Kaeru?"

"Yeah, I probably should have introduced you earlier," Anaido said, pointing over the man's shoulder. "She's the corpse hanging out that hatch over there."

The man turned around and indeed, hanging out of a hatch in the wall upside down staring at them was a body. Specifically, the upper half of a young woman, with long black hair, a blood-stained white dress and lifeless, sick green eyes. She seemed to have been dead for a while, judging by the dark blood that was seeping from the hatch and congealing on the floor.

The man stared blankly at Kaeru for a moment, his expression unreadable, before he spoke again. "Yeah, that's Kaeru alright."

"Oh?" Anaido raised his eyebrows. "Do you know her?"

"Can't say I do," the man said, turning to face Anaido, a self-assured smile beginning to form. "But I do know something else. I'm just like you. My name is Sakaido, a brilliant detective, and I'm also here to solve Kaeru's death."

"Ahahaha! Two brilliant detectives? Who could have guessed that!?" Anaido laughed, pointing between the two off them, before settling down again. "I was hoping that you were someone who might have known something about her and this place, but I suppose some help is nice as well."

"Speaking off..." Sakaido said, taking the time to look around the room for the first time. "Where even are we?"

The "room" the two of them were in was essentially a giant cube, comprised of identical walls, a ceiling and floor, each with a single hatch built into the centre, all closed bar the one with Kaeru hanging out. Other than their own breathing, the only sounds were an ominous grinding sound that rumbled throughout the structure every once in awhile, like something massive was shifting around. 

"Beats me," Anaido shrugged. "I had a peek in the room that Kaeru is coming out of, and it's exactly the same, but red."

Sakaido hummed in acknowledgement. "Well, first things first, let's examine the body. We're here to solve Kaeru's death; everything else comes second." He said, walking towards Kaeru. Anaido chuckled.

"Eager aren't we, Newbie?" He teased, walking over as Sakaido carefully pulled Kaeru out of the hatch, lifting her abdomen to try and avoid her insides pouring out onto his feet. Laying her carefully down on the floor, Sakaido began a proper examination of her body. Immediately, his gaze was drawn to her stomach, which had been sliced clean through. In fact, clean was an understatement. The cut was so finely done that the skin didn't even look like it been damaged, as if it had just detached itself and hopped off. There wasn't even a tear on her dress. 

_This cut... there's no way that a human did this. Not by hand, at least..._

"Hey, Anaido. What are-GET OUT OF THERE!!" He yelled, standing up and yanking Anaido (who had buried his head in the hatch) back by his collar.

"Hey! I was investigating!" Anaido protested as he jerked out of Sakaido's grip. 

We NEED to examine Kaeru's body first! Besides, you could have been killed by whatever killed her!" Sakaido said, incredulous. Anaido rolled his eyes, suddenly looking much more tired as his gaze swept over Kaeru's bisected corpse.

"Kaeru was obviously cut in half by kind of tool or machine in that room. Her body isn't stiff at all, and her body is-" He paused to bend over and poke Kaeru's bare shoulder. "-still pretty warm, so she can't have been dead for more an hour, maybe even less, meaning that if someone DID have some role in killing her, they can't be that far away from us." Anaido smiled again. "Anything else you want to add, Brilliant Detective?"

Sakaido blinked incredulously. ".... For now, I don't think so," he admitted, looking Anaido up and down with a newfound sense of curiosity. "Are you sure you've never been here before?" Anaido shrugged in response.

"If I ever have, I don't remember. But if I have, that means we might be able to get out of this place once we solve Kaeru's death." 

"Yeah well, let's think about escape AFTER we do solve it."

"Aha... of course..." Anaido said, turning back towards the hatch, this time with Sakaido following him. "Care to have a peek?"

Somewhat self-consciously, Sakaido stood on his tiptoes to peer inside. Indeed, as Anaido had said, the room he was looking into was exactly the same as the one they were in; a giant, mechanical cube, but instead of a dim white, the lights were an ominous, pale red. Pulling himself up and crawling forward slightly, he cautiously poked the top of his head out into the room. Unsurprisingly, right beneath him was Kaeru's lower half, slumped against the wall with her legs crossed. 

_Judging by the position of the two halves, she was probably crawling through the hatch when she was cut in half. But by what?_

As he was thinking this, it occurred to him that he should probably pull out before the same happened to him. However, as he began to carefully slide back out, he noticed something: a set of numbers, imprinted into the metal.

_669 251 567_

"Hey, Anaido," Sakaido said as he landed back on his feet. "Did you see those numbers on the hatch?"

"Of course I did," Anaido replied bluntly, leaning in close and staring intently at them, a bizarrely sentimental expression on his face as he extended his finger and tapped on one specific number. "251. A fine number indeed. A prime number, but not just any prime number," he said, turning towards Sakaido. "A power of a prime." Sakaido raised an eyebrow.

"I take it you're good with numbers, then."

"Heh... I suppose..."

At that moment, interrupting their conversation was a loud clanging sound, like gears in a machine rotating. The two men turned to see the handle on the opposite wall spinning, before sliding down and revealing a woman stuck her upper body out of the hatch. She was middle-aged, perhaps a decade or two older than the brilliant detectives, based on the small wrinkles on her face, with short, roughly cut black hair and bright, attention-grabbing blue eyes. She was wearing an all-white outfit consisting of a button-up, a shirt underneath, and a plain pair of trousers. Pulling her legs up, she seemed to be about to jump down onto the floor, until she finally noticed the two detectives staring back at her, as well as Kaeru's top half. Interestingly, the sight of Kaeru produced an expression of tired exasperation, rather than the shock and horror one would expect.

"Ughhhh..." she groaned, hopping off and onto the floor. "This is getting old."

"... Have you seen Kaeru's body before then?" Sakaido asked. 

"Yes. I'm afraid I've seen this room a few times now," she said, drawing closer, enough to see the word printed on her chest: **Abashiri**. Sakaido squinted at the name, an odd sense of déjà vu washing over him before quickly flicking his gaze up to her face to avoid getting caught. "And who might you two be? Neither of you were here when I first saw... Kaeru, is it? Do YOU know her?"

"In a manner of speaking..." Anaido said, his permanent grin having suddenly grown ten-fold at the sight of Abashiri. "The name's Anaido, and he's Sakaido. The two of us are brilliant detectives here to solve Kaeru's death." 

Abishiri's face twisted in confusion. "Brilliant... detectives?" Sakaido laughed nervously.

"Ahaha, I guess it sounds kinda ridiculous when you say it aloud," he admitted. Abishiri glanced between the two of them, her eyes narrowing.

"Wait... if you two came here to solve her death, does that mean you know the way out?" she asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Sakaido said. "Neither of us can remember how we got here, just that we need to solve Kaeru's death, if that makes sense," he finished, aware of how suspicious he sounded, and hurriedly tried to change the subject. "I take it that you don't either, Miss... Abishiri?" he asked.

Abishiri crossed her arms, nodding. "Yes. I went to bed last night, and woke up in here wearing these clothes. No explanation. I've been going from cube to cube ever since."

"And exactly how long have you been here?" Sakaido asked, taking a step forward.

"I'm not sure, a few hours perhaps? It's been hard to keep track of-"

"You said you've seen Kaeru before, right?" Anaido interrupted, drawing attention back to him. Abishiri glared at him for a brief moment, before settling into a more natural expression. 

"Yes. And?"

"How long ago was the first time?"

"I told you, it's hard to tell-!"

"But if you had to guess, how long?"

Abishiri exhaled loudly through her nostrils, massaging her temples. Sakaido remained silent, watching the two interact.

"I don't know, maybe..." she muttered, drawing her arms closer to her body. "Maybe a few hours. I really don't know. What are you getting at with these questions? I haven't the slightest thing to do with that girl's death!"

"Don't worry, we're just doing our job," Sakaido said, catching on to what his "colleague" was doing and giving his most sympathetic expression. "We just wanna find out as much as we can about this place. I'm sorry if we're coming across as pushy." Abashiri's hard, defensive features softened slightly.

"Well, all I want is to get out of this place. This 'Kaeru' girl isn't any of my concern," she said, turning and making her way over to the hatch on the left. Sakaido opened his mouth to tell her to stop, but stopped himself when Anaido stepped in front of him and placed a finger on his lips, winking.

"You shouldn't go there, Miss," he said, prompting Abashiri to pause and turn back as he approached her. "That room leads right into a trap." Abashira raised her eyebrows at him.

"What do you mean? I've been here before, I know that this-" was all she got out before Anaido punched her square in the jaw, sending her stumbling backwards, her head smashing into the corner of the hatch with a loud crack, her body slumping over and sliding onto the floor.

"What are you doing?!" Sakaido shouted, storming over to Anaido and grabbing him by the arm.

"What? She was obviously the killer," Anaido said, watching with mild interest as blood began to pool around Abashiri's head.

"She was a SUSPECT!" Sakaido corrected. "We needed to question-"

"You know, you think too much, Narihisago. You'd get things done a lot faster if you trusted your instincts a bit."

"... Narihisago...?" Sakaido let go of Anaido's arm, his face ashen.

"Yeah, Narihisago. You're Akihito Narihisago, the police officer turned serial killer." Anaido smirked at him, then looked up towards the ceiling. "Hey, I'm done. Could you guys take me out, I don't feel like killing myself this time."

The two stood there in silence for a moment before Anaido suddenly flew up into the ceiling, vanishing into thin air before he actually hit it. Sakaido stared up at it, his jaw slack, before feeling himself lift off the ground without warning and shoot upwards, screaming as the world around him began to blur and melt into white, his mind itself beginning to fade...

* * *

"Ughhhhh..." Narihisago groaned as he sat up, his back popping. A low, dry chuckle drew his attention, and he glared at Fukuda, who was watching him with an infuriating smile from the other cockpit.

"Hey, partner," he said, tilting his head. "Nice nap?" Narihisago glared at him in response.

"Why do you never tell me my real name? We could get things done so much quicker with _two_ brilliant detectives remembering their previous runs."

"I did think. I _thought_ it would be funny to watch you run around playing detective. And I was right. It was _hilarious_ ," Fukuda grinned.

 _"Good work Fukuda,"_ came Momoki's voice from over the speaker. _"We've apprehended Sayuri Abashiri at her villa. Your theory about the prime powers being coordinates was spot on."_

"Goodness," Fukuda said. "Top billing AND a thank you? It must be my lucky day."

"Was there even a point for me diving in?" Narihisago asked, somewhat bitterly.

_"Sakaido's purpose was to be Anaido's protection. We couldn't risk him trying to kill himself before he'd gathered enough information."_

"Hey, give Anaido some credit," Fukuda protested. "He came up with the amazing plan to incapacitate the antagonist."

"You just punched her," Narihisago said bluntly. Fukuda shrugged as the door opened, three security guards filing in.

"My my, our shift is over," Fukuda said, standing up as he allowed himself to be cuffed. "What do you say we go out for some saké? Did you know there's a brand called Narihisago?"

Narihisago ignored him as he was lead out of the room. Fukuda chuckled, following him out back to their cells.

"Heh... Someone's playing hard to get..."


End file.
